As we continue to celebrate the design work and artistic direction of Mary Blair, last month’s Open Studio visitors took a little inspiration from her Little Golden Books illustrations to create their own storybook pieces. Her work in classics such as I Can Fly, Baby’s House, and Little Verses helped us to explore different methods and types of illustrations that are used in creating children’s books like vignettes, spots and bleeds. These possibilities got everyone to think about what approach they would take with their own stories and sketches.
The first step in the drawing process was to complete a layout sheet. Here, visitors mapped out where they were going to place characters, setting, or objects and where they were going to include text, choosing from a variety of layout options or designing one of their own. These sketches were used to make small mock-ups of what their finished book pages would look like. Once they have layouts tied down, the next step was to paint their final pieces with watercolor! With various paper sizes to choose from, artists were free to make multiple illustrations with a story flow, or to focus on one key scene.If you would like to practice creating children’s book layouts at home, download our “Illustrating the Story” layout sheet here.
Have fun!
Jenna Calvao
Studio Coordinator